Motto for Today: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

This is Your Day-TODAY: Take a Determined Step Forward and Make History!

On this day, Oct. 18………

1776 – In a New York bar decorated with bird tail, customer orders “cock tail”. (The origin of the word cocktail is disputed. The first recorded use of the word cocktail not referring to a horse is found in ‘The Morning Post and Gazetteer in London, England ‘ on March 20, 1798. The first recorded use of the word cocktail as a beverage {possibly non-alcoholic} in the US appears in ‘The Farmer’s Cabinet’ on April 28, 1803. The first definition of cocktail known to be an alcoholic beverage appeared on May 13, 1806. In New Orleans, the Sazarac {a local New Orleans variation of a Cognac or whiskey cocktail} was prepared using an eggcup measure as a jigger. The French for eggcup is “coquetier” {pron. cock-a-tshay} and it is likely that the English word cocktail is simply a gastronomic loan-word from the French).

1878 – Edison makes electricity available for household use.

1922 – British Broadcasting Company (BBC) founded, later called British Broadcasting Corporation. (It is the world’s oldest national broadcasting organization and the second largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, with over 20,000 staff.

1952 – Vinoo Mankad takes 13 Pakistan wkts to win 1st India-Pak clash.

1954 – Texas Instruments Inc announces the first transistor radio. (Their development was made possible by the invention of the transistor in 1947. They became the most popular electronic communication device in history, with billions manufactured during the 1960s and 1970s. Beginning in the 1980s cheap AM transistor radios were superseded by devices with higher audio quality, portable CD players, personal audio players, and boom boxes).

1955 – The Track & Field names Jesse Owens all-time track athlete.

1997 – Prince Philip switches on the internet version of Malayala Manorama and The Week at Kochi.

2007 – After 8 years in exile, Benazir Bhutto returns to her homeland Pakistan. The same night, suicide attackers blow themselves up near Bhutto’s convoy, killing over 100 in the cheering crowd, including 20 police officers. Bhutto escaped uninjured.

2013 – Saudi Arabia becomes the first country to turn down a seat on the UN Security Council in protest over Syria.

Born….

1950 – Om Puri, actor.

1977 – Kunal Kapoor, actor.

1984 – Freida Pinto, actor.

RIP….

1983 – Vijay Manjrekar, cricketer. (55 Tests, 3208 runs).

1995 – Baby Naaz (Anuradha Bhakkar), famous child actor.

2004 – Veerappan, bandit and smuggler.

You may have known….

A comet’s tail always points away from the sun.

Good morning. Have a nice day!

{Compiled by Lt. Gen. (R) Raj Kadyan}